Behind the Scenes : Documentary Wedding Photography by Kevin Mullins

Although relatively new to the wedding photography business in comparison to some, I am often asked how I approach a purely documentary wedding photography shoot, and what makes me tick during a wedding.

Why Documentary Photography?

To answer the question, I think it’s important to first explain why I chose a documentary style for my wedding photography business and to be quite honest, it wasn’t always “just” documentary. My photography background is as a portrait photographer, and I still love that discipline, however, I found the portrait images I was creating in the rushed atmosphere of a wedding were just, frankly, not doing it for me. The story telling aspect was becoming such a strong essence in my wedding shoots that I decided from an early stage to use documentary or reportage as my marketing track, and I’ve not looked back since. My clients know what to expect on the day, and most importantly, they know what not to expect.

A Documentary Wedding

I will concentrate on a recent wedding, shot at the wonderful Whatley Manor in Gloucestershire as my behind the scenes story.

My bride and groom understand well in advance that my coverage will start with bridal preparation. To me, this is one of the best parts of the day to photograph, and where I will often get an essence of how the rest of the day will go; How the bride is feeling, how she is behaving, how the parents and bridal party are interacting are all key elements to watch for at this stage of the day.

I never move or adjust anything, and I never prompt the bride to move into more light etc. I shoot with what unfolds in front of me, and, depending on the venue, this can be quite difficult with low ceilings and thus low light situations. This is where the high ISO capabilities of my cameras comes into play. I never use Flash, with perhaps an exception during the dancing if the lack of any ambient light is too extreme.

For this wedding, the bride was applying her own makeup when I arrived and was already in her dress. In almost all situations, the bride or makeup artist will position themselves near a window or under some kind of light which will lead to a photographic opportunity. I will take the shots as they unfold, and often, will just hang back until I see an image that will capture the moment of that part of the story.

Because I don’t adjust, or prompt for any interaction at all, I am always on the lookout for creative options that may add to album and the story. The image above, was taken from exactly the same spot as the first image. I simply turned around, and spotted a mirror on the other side of the room which was reflecting the scene perfectly. I try to move around as little as possible, though of course, you will have to have move around a scene to make a picture happen.

The same is true of this next shot. I noticed the aperture of the brides arm creating a nice frame of her looking in the mirror. Technically, it’s not a perfect shot; the elbow is clipped and it ignores many of the other rules of composition – but is a story telling image:

Documentary and street photography has been held my attention in books and magazines for as long as I can remember. The image above, where the bride’s mother is holding the brides gown and looking on proudly at her daughter is one of my favourites from this wedding. I could see this scene unfolding in front of me. I was actually positioned in the door frame behind the mirror when the mother came over and picked up the gown trail. I realised that there may be a photographic opportunity in the full length mirror at this point and, with that in mind, I moved to the position that gave me this moment. None of this is staged, and the moment could well have been lost in the time it took me to move around, but it was a risk I thought was worth taking and one, in my mind, that worked out well in the end.

Whilst I class myself as a documentary wedding photographer, I don’t have any issues with mixing colour and black and white images. In fact, some of my best images, I believe, are in colour and have quite a bit of post production done to them. That said, sometimes an image just comes along that screams out to be in black and white.

With the image above, I was very lucky. The brides flowers had just been brought to her room and she was looking down at them happily when I took the shot above. The light, expression and posture of the bride was just perfect and I’m really pleased how the shot came out. Documentary wedding photography involves a lot of skill and effort of course, but there is definitely an element of luck thrown into the mix too.

The following image was the very next frame in the sequence:

Which then presented this image:

Despite the appearance of the above image, there is no posing or prompting or placing of subject at all in this frame. The sequence of events, which will be documented in the album, of the previous three shots tell a complete sub-story to the overall story of the day.

The rest of the day is captured in the same fashion; As I shoot more wedding, of course, I get more experience to the positions and places that are best suited for the shots.

Before the ceremony starts, I like to move to the front to capture some moments of anticipation of the groom and his family. It’s not always possible to capture a shot of the grooms mother looking emotionally at her son while he looks at his watch of course, but is nice to try and get an element of feeling in the shots, incorporating family members and other members of the grooms party if possible.

Despite the phrase “documentary photography”, the bride and groom expect a certain amount of standard type shots.

The groom with his new bride walking down the aisle is a classic example. As mentioned before, I don’t use flash, and I don’t tell the bride and groom to slow down or stop etc., whilst they are walking up the aisle.

The next shot was taken the moment the new bride and groom held hands for the first time as a married couple. I took quite a few frames of course, many of them further down the aisle, but this shot tells more of a story to me, as they hold hands and look into each other’s eyes – with the atmosphere of the congregation looking on:

The technicalities of this type of shot are much easier to cope with with modern cameras. This was shot at 6400 ISO using Servo mode on a Canon 5D MK II. Anybody who knows Whatley Manor will know that this room is extremely dark and it was also a dark, rainy day. The room is clad in mahogany walls which doesn’t help either. Setting the camera to the high ISO enabled me to get this shot without the need for flash photography.

During the day, it’s important to me to keep an eye out for intimate moments or moments that reflect a link or bond between the subjects. You can often see these moments about to unfold, especially as guests rush up to congratulate the bride and groom. It’s good to get in close with a medium range lens in these situations. This following shot was taken with a 35mm lens:

Opportunities arise all the time during the wedding. At this particular wedding, the couple had a cup-cake tower, rather than a traditional cake. The didn’t want a posed shot of the cake being cut of course – this next shot was “their” equivalent of cutting of the cake. They just did this – nothing was staged, and all around me were family and friends snapping away at exactly the same scene. Again, it’s a lovely moment that they will hopefully remember as a key part of their day.

Moving on through the day, though I am commissioned to cover the first dance, I always try to stay for movers-and-shakers on the dance floor. Nearly all my couples love the pictures of their guests dancing and I aim to capture some off-the-wall type images at this stage:

This is about the only time I will put the camera into its highest FPS mode and shoot rapidly to capture moments like the images above.

Of course, the technicalities and realities of documentary wedding photography are not always straight forward. Every wedding couple expects to have some group shots and perhaps a few formal images of themselves. I think that is to be expected and I would never discourage a couple from that (though I do try to guide them on the numbers of group shots). I have no problem of course with posed shots or “traditional” wedding photography. In fact, some of my favourite wedding photographers use this approach and they produce wonderfully creative images. For me, however, I could not get into that mould and I always recommend other photographers that I know and admire to couples that perhaps don’t really want a documentary approach.

Sometimes, it may appear that circumstance is working against you. For example, I nearly always have to work around videographers. No matter how much we talk before the wedding, they still seem to get in my way (perhaps no on purpose). In these kinds of situations, you have to continually think on your feet – if the videographer is videoing the scene straight on, then it’s time to take side on shots of the scene etc. There are also people who explain to you as soon as you see them that they don’t like, nor want, their photo taken. This is when stealth, but also manners and common courtesy throughout the day come into play.

At the end of the day, I drive home, even if this is a long drive – I like driving, and I like to use the time in the car as a bit of downtime from the busy day. I’ll normally go straight to the office when I get back to back up the cards, then it’s time for a couple of beers to relax before the end of the day.

Thanks Kevin for a fantastic behind the scenes look at shooting a documentary style wedding!

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